The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to behavioral phenotyping and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a method and apparatus for automatically classifying behavioral phenotypes and/or reactions to treatments in model organisms, for example, from single to multiple socially interacting individuals.
Laboratory mice, rats, fish and many other organisms display many genetic and behavioral characteristics which resemble that of humans. This makes them suitable candidates for testing and for evaluating the effects of drugs and other treatments being developed for humans. In particular, mice and humans share many behavioral characteristics such as, for example, anxiety, aggression, circadian rhythm, and sexual behavior, among others. By observing changes in mouse behavior during testing, conclusions may be derived by researchers as to the effect the drugs/treatments may have on humans.
Use of mice for evaluating the effects of drugs/treatment has led researchers to generate thousands of mutant mouse strains. The researchers generally first identify the genes and mechanisms involved in various human heritable diseases to enable the assessment of potential therapeutic tools. With this information, the researchers generate mutant mouse strains phenotyping each strain and assigning a function to each mouse gene.
In order to behaviorally phenotype a mouse strain, a wide range of experimental set-ups and methodologies are currently required. For example, models of generalized anxiety disorders include approach-avoidance conflict behaviors, including the elevated plus maze, light-dark exploration, open field exploration [1-6]. Detection of memory deficits in Alzheimer's models include using learning and memory tests, including spatial navigation tasks such as the Morris water maze, Barnes maze, radial maze, and T-maze; emotional memory tasks such as contextual and cued fear conditioning; and aversive tasks such as active and passive avoidance [7-10]. Parkinson's and Huntington's disease models include use of sensitive motor tasks such as balance beam walking, walking and footprint pattern (e.g. cat walk system, Noldus) [8, 11-14]. Rodents' tasks sensitive to antidepressant drugs include forced swim, tail suspension, and stressor-induced anhedonia [2, 15-17].
There are few standard possibly automated behavioral paradigms that are routinely used to assay autism-like social behavioral symptoms in mouse models, albeit in very artificial settings, including a three chambered apparatus that is used to assay sociability and social memory, a phenotyper apparatus that scores the social interactions of a resident mouse with an intruding novel mouse, and auditory communication assays that quantify the level of ultrasonic vocalization of new born pups when being separated from their mother [22-24, 26, 27].
Some systems and methods for behaviorally phenotyping mouse strains or for assessing the effects of drugs/treatments on the mice include means for tracking their movements under diverse environments. In some cases, the tracking means may include use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with RFID transponders implanted in the mice. The art includes the following:    a) Kritzler et al., An RFID-based Tracking System for Laboratory Mice in a Semi NaturalEnvironment, www(dot)citeseerx(dot)ist(dot)psu(dot)edu/viewdoc/.    b) Kritzler et al., A GIS Framework for Spatio-temporal Analysis and Visualization of Laboratory Mice Tracking Data, www(dot)onlinelibrary(dot)wiley(dot)com/.    c) Kritzler et al., Analysing Movement and Behavioural Patterns of Laboratory Mice in a Semi Natural Environment based on Data collected via RFID-Technology, www(dot)citeseerx(dot)ist(dot)psu(dot)edu.    d) Lewejohann et al., Behavioral phenotyping of a murine model of Alzheimer's disease in a seminaturalistic environment using RFID tracking, www(dot)springerlink(dot)com.    e) Kritzler et al, Concept of a Framework for Moving Objects based on different Data Sources, www(dot)dfki(dot)de/web/forschung/publikationen.    f) U.S. Pat. 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